Jamie Dimon is to be interviewed under oath over decision to retain Jeffrey Epstein as a client

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon will face federal prosecutors under oath over his bank’s decision to retain pedophile Jeffrey Epstein as a client despite his sex trafficking.

Dimon is set to give an affidavit behind closed doors in May, the financial times reported, as part of two lawsuits brought against the largest US bank by an alleged victim of Epstein and the US Virgin Islands, where the disgraced financier had a home.

The lawsuits allege that JPMorgan, where Epstein banked from 1998 to 2013, profited from human trafficking and ignored internal warnings about its clients’ illegal activities.

A pretrial investigation later found that Dimon conducted some sort of “review” into the bank’s relationship with Epstein in the years leading up to his arrest.

But the bank has repeatedly denied that Dimon conducted such a review, describing the claims against him as “meritless.” Instead, bank officials have tried to pin the blame for his business dealings with Epstein on former executive James Edward ‘Jes’ Staley.

The US Virgin Islands filed a lawsuit against the bank claiming they knew about Epstein’s nefarious behavior for years, but turned a blind eye.

JPMorgan Chase lawyers have repeatedly denied that Dimon was involved in Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme, and a person familiar with an internal investigation told the Financial Times that there is no record of Dimon having been in direct communication with Epstein or having been included in any discussion about retaining him. as client

That lawsuit and another filed by one of his alleged victims allege that the bank benefited financially from his relationship with the disgraced financier.

But lawyers have previously resisted attempts to depose Dimon and have sought to limit the range of documents released during the pretrial process.

Instead, the bank countersued Staley, arguing that he should be liable for JPMorgan’s financial damages if a federal judge finds that the bank benefited from his relationship with Epstein.

The suit also demands that Staley pay wages he was paid between 2006 and 2012, which could run into the tens of millions of dollars, according to Reuters.

The lawyers claim that Staley witnessed and participated in sexual crimes at Epstein’s residences, and allege that he did not disclose this “despite having a fiduciary duty” to do so.

Staley was known to have shared a close relationship with Epstein over the years, with the pair sometimes traveling together.

In total, he is said to have exchanged approximately 1,200 emails with Epstein from his JPMorgan Chase account from 2008 to 2012, when Epstein had more than $120 million in assets at the bank.

And while he was still a senior JPMorgan executive, Staley is said to have visited Epstein in prison after his conviction for soliciting the prostitution of a minor in 2008.

But Staley has not been convicted of any Epstein-related crimes.

He left JPMorgan in 2013 and became chief executive of Barclays in 2015. He then resigned in 2021 to challenge regulators’ findings about his connection to Epstein.

The UK-based bank has now admitted that the recent allegations against the former CEO were “serious”.

Former JPMorgan Chase executive James ‘Jes’ Staley (left) with Jeffrey Epstein in 2011. The photo was taken after Epstein was convicted of soliciting underage girls for prostitution in 2008.

After the full extent of Epstein’s crimes became known in 2019, Staley initially claimed that he and Epstein were little more than business acquaintances.

In its lawsuit against JPMorgan filed in December, the US Virgin Islands alleged that the bank “had more than a close view of Epstein’s sex trafficking.”

He also said the bank “ignored obvious red flags related to the Epstein accounts.”

Epstein conducted much of his criminal activity on Little St. James Island, a private island he owns off the coast of the St. James Islands.

The government further claimed that JPMorgan had more than enough exposure to Epstein’s accounts to determine that he was engaging in criminal behavior on its turf.

Last week, federal judge Jed Rakoff allowed that lawsuit to proceed, along with one brought by an alleged victim of Epstein and another against Deutsche Bank on similar charges.

He also ordered JPMorgan to turn over documents containing communications involving Dimon and former general counsel Steve Cutler from before 2006, when Epstein was first arrested.

Along with Dimon, other top bank officials, including Mary Erdoes, head of the bank’s $4 trillion asset and wealth management business, are also expected to be ousted before the bank faces trial in both cases in October.

JP Morgan has been contacted for comment.